I am unfortunate enough to live in a country with absurd alcohol-related laws - only those over the age of 21 are allowed to buy alcohol. At all. This is enforced by requiring waiters and grocery store clerks (and liquor store clerks) to ask for photo ID from anyone attempting to buy alcohol who looks
as if they might, by the remotest stretch of the imagination, be under the age of 21. Some stores ask everyone, including doddering grandmas.

This bothers me, but I am resigned to it. However, what bother me more (being a bit of a privacy fanatic) is that proving one's age involves admitting one's name and address, which are imprinted on the driver's liscence (the only form of photo ID most people here carry habitually). If the waiter/clerk just wants to look at it, it's possible to keep one's thumb over the name and address; if they are paranoid enough to scan the thing, it's impossible.

I'd like to see governments issue an alternate form of photo ID that only displays three things: your photo, date of birth, and a meaningless serial number. By showing someone this, you could prove that you were old enough to legally buy alcohol (or cigarettes, or get the senior discount) without telling them anything else about yourself. The serial number could be used to verify that the card wasn't a fake.